1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical information system for managing electronic clinical charts or electronic medical records on a server apparatus and for providing the electronic charts for medical terminals placed at medical-related facilities, such as hospitals, and for a patient terminal placed at a patient's home.
2. Description of the Related Art
This type of medical information system enables the construction of a network for connecting computers placed at various medical institutions, such as hospitals and clinics. The medical information system also enables the computerization and sharing of medical care information at the medical institutions and enables the mutual reference to the information, by using the computers individually placed at the medical institutions (e.g. refer to Japanese Patent Application Laying Open NO. 2002-117142).
This type of the medical information system also provides medical care information for patients, if the patients apply for it. The application is performed by patients submitting documents which indicate their intention, by patients themselves directly asking doctors for the application during examinations, or the like. Nowadays, many patients desire for the provision of medical care information.
In the above-described medical information system, however, less patients actually use the system than patients who desire to apply for the provision of medical care information because it is hard for the patients to ask doctors for the reason of mental hesitation, or because procedures with the document submission are troublesome, or for the similar reasons. Moreover, considering the fact that patients have difficulty in understanding their medical care information only from doctors' explanation during examinations, it can be said that the above-described medical information system insufficiently discloses the medical care information to the patients. In particular, in the medical information system in which patients can refer to electronic charts or in which electronic charts can be shared at a plurality of medical institutions, there is a risk that a patient who does not desire for medical announcement sees his electronic chart and thus he substantially receives the medical announcement. As described above, there has not been realized a technique which allows for consistency with such medical announcement problems, which allows for guarantee of the right of patients who have the right to use and browse electronic charts and the right to grant the use and browsing, and further which allows for the protection of patient privacy. In addition, if a patient who is not used to refer to electronic charts is allowed to refer to the electronic charts, that may rather cause conflict and massive confusion between the medical-related facilities and the patient because of his anxiety and misunderstanding or the like. Even by using latest communication techniques, such as the Internet, and latest computer techniques, it is extremely difficult, from a technical viewpoint, to let patients smoothly refer to and make electronic charts while these problems are solved at a time, i.e. the problems such as the medical announcement, the guarantee of the rights, and the privacy protection. Moreover, it is more difficult, from a technical viewpoint, to increase the quality of electronic charts, which can be shared at a plurality of medical-related facilities, with the participation of patients and to eventually increase the quality of local medication as a whole while the above problems are solved at a time.